Students searching for a new Wednesday night venue after the December closing of the Fish Company have found a potential alternative in the Colosseum, a Pine Street nightclub.
Last week, a handful of students created a Facebook event promoting a new "Brown Night" at the Colosseum, one of the venues vying for students' Wednesday night business. The South Main Street restaurant Olives has also attracted groups of Brown students on Wednesdays this semester.
"Fish Co. definitely left a void for people in the social calendar," said Jesse Frank '12, one of the organizers of the Colosseum event. "We wanted to create a place where the entire Brown community could come together for social purposes during the week."
And come together they did — over 400 students attended the event last Wednesday, according to Anthony Santurri, one of Colosseum's owners.
"We didn't expect that many," Santurri said. "They caught us off guard. Even the coat room was overwhelmed. We ran out of hangers."
"It seemed to be a huge success," he added. "We had no trouble, everyone was great."
Frank called the event "great," but added, "we're still in development stages." He described the effort as a "couple-week trial. We're going to see how it goes."
The Colosseum allows entry to anyone 18 years old and up, giving access to the "whole Brown community," he said.
The venue does have one significant difference from Fish Co., where several students were arrested for underage drinking last December. "We are going to be very, very strict about the drinking policy," Santurri said. "If people have a drink and no bracelet, we take it away."
